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We like to watch inspirational stories and movies, not expect to see people succeed through hard work, which can only be called fairy tales. Rather, we see the protagonist's indomitability and resistance, thus gaining strength.
There is only one kind of heroism in the world, and that is to love life after knowing the truth of life.
"Burst Drummer" is a "dark" inspirational film, and many people even think that the film is essentially an anti-inspirational film or a psychological film, because there are too many values in it that are contrary to reality, making people feel cruel and unbearable, full of anti-humanity and hostility.
In fact, the original name of the film is "whiplash", which itself means "whipping", and Chinese translated as "Burst Drummer" or "Agitating Life", etc., some preconceived notions regard it as a traditional inspirational movie.
The highlight of this movie, in addition to the protagonist's rebellion against the harsh teacher, is also for life, for suffering, and for great thinking. And this American film is not entirely American culture, but has a lot of intersection with Chinese education.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > oppressive education</h1>
"Burst Drummer" is only 107 minutes long, but the whole story is full of ups and downs, full of characters, so the pace of the film is also very fast.
The sharp editing in the later stages, combined with the dense, bursting drum sounds of jazz, made the audience feel that the entire audition was in a state of adrenaline surge, and after the end of the film, the heart seemed to vibrate with the sound of the drum.
The story takes place in the Schaefer School of Music and Art near Lincoln Center, based on the Juilliard School, founded 115 years ago, and is known as the "Harvard of the music world".
Juilliard College
However, because of the particularity of art, it is not the same as Harvard, Harvard's annual enrollment is about 5,000 people, while Julia even if she tries to expand enrollment, there are only more than 100 people, and the jazz department subdivided into the film is only 10-20 people.
Moreover, Julia's enrollment range is 8-18 years old, so the talents who can enter the academy are all geniuses, and the school music department has only 2 orchestras, with a primary and secondary division, and each orchestra also has a principal and substitute competition.
At the beginning of the film, Andrew is a second-line band at the academy, and Fletcher, the mentor of the first-line band (chamber band), took a fancy to him and brought him to his band.
Unexpectedly, he was greeted by a hellish life, on the first day Fletcher gave him a dismount, in fact, the time for the chamber band to practice was 9 a.m., Fletcher informed him to arrive at 6 o'clock, and let him wait for 3 hours in the practice room.
This passage, both inside and outside the story, seems unnecessary, and this is also Fletcher's style - "high pressure".
Fletcher's high-pressure tactics include more than just extremely harsh demands, unlimited verbal abuse, violent smashing of objects, and a high-intensity teaching rhythm.
I think everyone in the audience was extremely shocked to see this process, which is not in line with the usual educational theme, and there is no sense of "spring wind and rain" and "teaching and educating people".
The core of the whole story is also centered on Fletcher's high pressure and Andrew's rebellion, and the film does not want to discuss whether this method is right or wrong, as if everything is natural.
This is where we can think about "teacher power." In fact, there is no such tutor as Fletcher in the United States, on the contrary, it is more in line with the educational tradition of Chinese.
In Confucian culture, we identify with the "Heaven and Earth Emperor and Teacher", the teacher is the same level of existence as the parents and the emperor, and in traditional culture, the teacher/parents are right, which has run through the history of China for thousands of years.
Just a few months ago, a man in Henan province beat his 20-year-old teacher and was sentenced for that.
The incident was discussed on the Internet for more than half a year, until netizens still had different opinions, some sympathized with him, and some people thought it was a symbol of the teacher's responsibility.
So as a teacher, excluding the factor of private morality, just to make efforts for students, can you take extreme measures?
The answer to this question can only be answered by "teaching according to one's aptitude", and there is no standard answer.
We set our sights back on the film, which begins with the juilliard school, the first institution in the American music industry, whose alumni include Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, John F. Kennedy, and the First Academy. Williams and so on, simply put, the vast majority of the world's top orchestra principals come from Julia, occupying most of the mainstream music industry.
So here's a school of how to educate "geniuses," Fletcher says in the second half of the film:
Raising my right hand and slapping a fool can do it, and the job I do at the academy is not to direct, but to stimulate human potential.
In fact, it can also be seen here whether the concept of education in the United States is really different from China, in the 90s, the "quality education" wind blown in the West affected a generation.
It seems that at that time, we generally believed that Chinese students were too focused on exam preparation, while American students were all-rounded. Maotanchang's model of education is too anti-human, what is it actually like?
In 2001, Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Helms went undercover at Whitney High School, a public school in California, to investigate the school's real learning.
Whitney High School ranked No. 1 in California and No. 33 in the United States, which is what we consider to be a prestigious school, the results were astounding, Whitney and Maotanchang and Hengshui Middle School are no different, the implementation of the "3 4" principle, that is, 4 hours of sleep, 4 cups of coffee, 4.0 GPA score.
Whitney's students have more than 100 pounds of books and teaching materials, and every day they chant I want to go to Harvard, Yale, and MIT. There are more than 6,000 schools in the United States, and sports, arts and even cheerleading can be a stepping stone to college, almost everyone has a college, but the top high schools still pursue high GPA scores and go to prestigious schools.
This is the elite education in the United States, which is no different from China under fierce competition.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the cost of success</h1>
In Fletcher's eyes, a genius is not a genius if he gives up his efforts, and he has a natural sense of mission, thinking that he must take these geniuses to the highest halls of music.
At the same time, Fletcher's high pressure is also targeted, for example, when Andrew first entered the chamber band, there was a little fat musician who could not hear where to go out of tune, Fletcher basically did not say anything vicious, and directly let him quit.
So whether Andrew is a student suitable for high-pressure teaching, the answer is yes.
Andrew first became chief because he lost the original chief's score, and this section in the film is very vague, and it is impossible to see whether it is intentional or unintentional.
In addition, Andrew smiled when his competitors made mistakes, while giving up his love, becoming a great drummer in his eyes, and pursuing the ultimate in music was his goal.
It turned out that When Andrew was in the second-line band, he didn't work so hard, and even the second-line band's classmates laughed at him: "The drums are playing generally."
Since entering the chamber band, under the influence of Fletcher, Andrew seems to have completely opened the second vein of RenDu, practicing desperately, and even his hands are worn out, and blood is splashed on the drum.
From the middle of the film, blood runs through to the end of the film.
Is blood just a symbol of effort? No, it also represents the "price" of greatness.
In real life, the extreme is not the direction pursued by the public, we believe that the best double harvest of career and family, the best body and soul are on the road, the leader is best to be approachable, the teacher is best to be like a spring breeze...
There is nothing wrong with this, and it is what most people should pursue. However, we cannot ignore the fact that what is good is perfect, but greatness must have sacrifices, even if these sacrifices are not necessarily so "necessary."
Just like in the film, Andrew practiced drumming until his hands were bleeding, and there was an ice bucket next to him ready to stop the bleeding, wouldn't it really affect the state of the official performance?
In Andrew, because he wanted to get his drum hammer back, while driving wildly, while worrying about his position as chief, he accidentally had a car accident, and he still insisted on performing with blood.
Is it rational to risk ruining the rest of your career?
No, but the values of not being crazy and not living run through the film, and the film is precisely because of its artistic themes, but also tells that the essence of art is emotional, not rational.
If Andrew wants to go to greatness, he needs to pay a price, until the final collapse is also because of the loss of the chief position, not the suffering suffered.
Of course, this price is actually anti-human and unscientific, and it is likely to be tragic, and Fletcher's vision of teaching according to his talents in the film is not all accurate.
Sean, the band's top musician, hanged himself as a result of this collapse, and during practice, he showed a tendency to depression, which is both tragic and costly.
The ending of "Burst Drummer" also reveals that this is not a traditional inspirational film, Andrew and Fletcher did not shake hands and make peace, but walked into the hell of "revenge", Andrew to the school to reflect his educational methods are too radical, resulting in Fletcher losing his position as a teacher.
And Fletcher, even though he and Andrew seem to confide in the bar, are trying to frame him at the Carnegie Concert Hall and completely ruin his career.
When Andrew performed, he was not willing to accept his own failure, exhausted his whole body's anger and unwillingness, and played a top-level solo, and Fletcher's attitude also changed from the disgust derived from revenge to the affirmation and appreciation of the level of music.
The film's constant reversal in this process is also worth playing, if Fletcher does not have a move of revenge, it stops at the traditional inspirational film - redemption after a fierce collision;
If it stops at revenge, the character of Fletcher is completely transformed into a symbol of violence and dictatorship.
And it is through 3 character relationship reversals that Fletcher is a "love, deep responsibility" attitude towards Andrew, and his body even loses humanity, which is completely a musical pursuit, as long as you play well, everything can be forgotten.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > from good to great</h1>
Outside of the main core conflict of the film, one thing that is very interesting is that Andrew has just taken the position of chief drummer at the family gathering, which is a moment when he should enjoy the blessings of relatives and friends.
But Andrew's relatives and friends clearly disagree with Andrew's achievements, and in their eyes it seems that the relatives and children of the rugby varsity team are more praiseworthy.
He was even asked: "How is music competition judged by subjective feelings?" ”
It is also clear that the whole family atmosphere, including his father, does not know much about music, does not agree, and even regards the private life of the musician as a mess in the whole music circle.
Born into a Jewish single-parent family, Andrew was also sensitive at heart, and had a verbal conflict with his relatives and friends at the dinner table, saying the following:
"I'd rather die at the age of 34 drunk and penniless and have people talk about me at the dinner table than live to be 90 years old, but no one remembers who I am."
Andrew's extreme remarks at the dinner table actually reflect his inner desire to be recognized, but it seems that the niche field of music is far from being valued by the people around him for sports or school achievements.
This is also the reason why Andrew is bent on going to greatness, and this desire for recognition is doomed to an essential class of people, and they will all go to tragedy.
Is recognition really that important?
In our lives, the computer department is considered to be a computer, the physical education department is considered to be a teacher if it is not a proper athlete, the music department has to sing a pop song at a family gathering, and many niche fields are considered to be "not doing business"...
Recognition is of course important.
Even in the United States, the birthplace of jazz, there are still a large number of people who do not understand jazz at all.
That's why the protagonist is crazy like pursuing greatness.
We can think about it, when was the computer department generally recognized? It was after the salaries of programmers who were generally higher than the mass standard were learned.
However, jazz in the film is difficult to get recognition through salary, and it can only become famous, even if the protagonist enters the highest music school and gets the position of chief, it is already very "good", it is still not enough.
As Fletcher said: There is nothing more harmful in the English dictionary than good job, but more about saying that in this era of "jazz is dead", it must go to the top.
"Burst Drummer" reveals to us the great price, but also tells us that the life we choose is the most magnificent life.